


Still Looking to the Horizon

by milowren



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Gen, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Kylo Ren Redemption, M/M, POV Alternating, POV Armitage Hux, POV Kylo Ren, POV Poe Dameron, POV Rey (Star Wars), Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-19 13:20:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22344886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milowren/pseuds/milowren
Summary: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…TheRESISTANCEis in mourning.  Beloved General Leia Organa has passed on, leaving grief and uncertainty in her wake.  Hope flickers as the remaining heroes of the Resistance prepare for a final stand against theFIRST ORDER, while still recovering from this terrible loss.On the other side of the war, chaos reigns asSUPREME LEADERKylo Ren struggles to maintain the allegiance of the First Order.  As a result of his failure at the Battle of Crait, dissension has risen through the ranks and discord is everywhere.  Unsure who he can trust, Kylo contemplates turning to a former ally.Meanwhile, Rey, with the aid of the Sacred Texts, continues her training to become the last of theJEDI.  She stands as the beacon of the Resistance and the last great hope to restore balance to the galaxy before it is plunged into darkness forever…(Basically this is my The Rise of Skywalker rewrite!)
Relationships: Finn/Rose Tico, Kylo Ren/Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So I have pretty much been grieving since I saw The Rise of Skywalker, and as a coping mechanism I am completely rewriting the movie!
> 
> A couple of things to note:  
> 
> 
> 1) I am a Reylo! While I will be going back and forth between different characters, this story will be largely Reylo-centric and will include in-canon aspects of their relationship. I assume most people who read this will also like Reylo, but I wanted to include a warning just in case anyone stumbles upon this who is not a fan.  
> 
> 
> 2) I am keeping the basic plot pretty similar to what is in the movie, but fundamentally changing some key elements - most notably, in my version Leia has passed away just before the story starts and Rey will NOT be a Palpatine. Palpatine himself is still here, but the reasons for his involvement will differ from the movie. This is also still a work in progress, so other things will probably change as I go along! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

The **RESISTANCE** is in mourning. Beloved General Leia Organa has passed on, leaving grief and uncertainty in her wake. Hope flickers as the remaining heroes of the Resistance prepare for a final stand against the **FIRST ORDER** , while still recovering from this terrible loss.

On the other side of the war, chaos reigns as **SUPREME LEADER** Kylo Ren struggles to maintain the allegiance of the First Order. As a result of his failure at the Battle of Crait, dissension has risen through the ranks and discord is everywhere. Unsure who he can trust, Kylo contemplates turning to a former ally.

Meanwhile, Rey, with the aid of the Sacred Texts, continues her training to become the last of the **JEDI**. She stands as the beacon of the Resistance and the last great hope to restore balance to the galaxy before it is plunged into darkness forever…

******

Hux hurried along the gray, barren surface of the planet Exegol, eager to reach his destination. He was so close now — so, so close. However, as he approached the colossal cavern ahead, a feeling of unease washed over him. The opening of the rock face that had looked about an inch tall from his ship was actually well over a hundred feet high, and Hux could see flashes of lightning through the gap. For the first time, he stopped to consider whether this might be a mistake. But no — he had searched much too long to stop now. He checked the blaster at his hip and continued forward. 

As soon as he was inside, a low rumble echoed throughout the cavern, shaking the walls, and then the floor began to descend like a massive elevator. Hux stumbled, arms flailing, but righted himself immediately. He could not afford to look weak or unbalanced. Not now, not with so much at stake. 

Gigantic statues appeared on all sides as Hux sank lower, hooded figures that he could only assume were meant to represent the Sith Lords of the past. Each was at least as tall as a Star Destroyer was long. Hux felt equal parts dread and awe as he looked at them; he could scarcely imagine a more ominous place. 

When the platform ground to a halt, Hux hesitated for only a second before stepping forward. Lightning illuminated the room before him, and then cast it back into total darkness. With each flash, he could see cylinders lining the walls, each large enough to fit a man. They looked like bacta tanks, but they glowed with a sickly green hue. A few appeared to be occupied, but Hux did not dare take a closer look.

_“Why have you come here?”_

Hux froze in his tracks, his head whipping back and forth, peering through the gloom. He could not tell whether the deep, rasping voice came from behind him, or further ahead. It seemed to emanate from the very walls, as though the cave itself was speaking.

He cleared his throat. “I am General Hux of the First Order,” he said as authoritatively as possible. “I —”

_“I know who you are, boy,”_ the voice interrupted, full of disdain. _“Why have you come?”_

Taken aback, Hux paused to consider his strategy. “I heard rumors,” Hux said after a moment. “I needed to see whether they were true. And I see now that they are.” 

He had finally located the owner of the voice, a cloaked figure partially obscured by one of the tanks. He approached slowly, his hand drifting once again to his blaster.

_“And what rumors would those be?”_

Hux swallowed, still inching closer. “That there was still another Sith Lord in existence powerful enough to defeat Kylo Ren.”

The voice cackled. _“That is why you have come all this way? For some schoolboy rivalry?”_

Hux stopped again, his face burning. “Kylo Ren will burn the First Order to the ground!” he shouted indignantly. “He cares nothing for our regime, he is too focused on his own personal agenda!”

_“And what is the Supreme Leader’s agenda?”_

“There’s a scavenger girl,” Hux replied through gritted teeth. “All Ren can think about is finding her.”

_“Ah, the scavenger…yes,”_ the voice mused. _“The Force is strong with her.”_

“Yes,” Hux said shortly, then paused. “How do you know about her?” he asked slowly. “How do you know about any of this? How are you even alive?”

The voice chuckled again, less maniacal than it had been before. _“The Dark Side is a pathway to many abilities that some consider to be unnatural.”_

Against his will, Hux felt a chill run down his spine at these words. As loath as he was to believe in the power of the Force, especially when it meant admitting that Ren’s strength far surpassed his own, he had no doubt that what the voice had just said was true. 

_“But that is why you’ve truly come, is it not? You need the power of the Dark Side.”_

“Yes,” Hux admitted. “If we do nothing, Ren will descend the First Order into chaos and allow the Resistance to unleash their anarchy on the galaxy. I need your help to stop him.”

_“And what will you give me in return?”_

Hux steeled himself; this was the part he had been dreading, but he knew it must be done. If his plan worked, it would all be worth it. “I will give you the First Order,” he said, taking another step closer to the cloaked figure. “You will be the Supreme Leader.” 

_“Good,”_ the voice wheezed, almost gleefully. It did not sound surprised in the least by this offer. _“I accept. Together, we will restore the First Order to its full power. This will be the rise of a new Empire!”_

Finally, Hux stood before the source of the voice. He could see now that the figure was connected to the tank behind him through various tubes and wires. A hood concealed half of his face; Hux could only see black lips stretched across rotting teeth and wrinkled skin so pale it appeared almost blue in the dim light.

Despite the gruesome sight, he smiled. “And Kylo Ren will fall.”

******

Rey ran as fast as she could, her feet flying along the forest floor, barely seeming to touch the ground. The woods were alive all around her; she could hear birds singing and feel the breeze rushing past her with every step. For the first time in several days, she felt light and free.

When she reached a particularly tall tree, she leapt up and effortlessly took hold of a branch far too high for a normal person to reach. Swinging around gracefully, she snatched a red handkerchief from another branch and let herself drop.

The second her feet touched the ground, she was running again, even faster than before. She had a fleeting thought that maybe she shouldn’t push herself quite so hard, that she should conserve her energy for the inevitable fights to come, but she suppressed it. The faster she ran, the less time she had to think, and she really did not want to think right now. It was far easier to guard against unwanted interference when her mind was clear. 

A log appeared in her path, and Rey jumped over it with ease, tucking herself into a ball to somersault as she landed. While still on one knee, she took a moment to tie the handkerchief around her forehead. A few feet ahead, the earth opened into a crevasse with only a thick rope to serve as a bridge. Rey took a deep breath and stepped onto the rope, adjusting the handkerchief to cover her eyes. Then she drew her lightsaber. 

The remote heliball that had been floating along behind her buzzed to life as soon as Rey stepped onto the bridge. Although she couldn’t see it, she could feel the vibrations in the air around her, the same way she could feel the subtle changes in space whenever her foot hovered over the crevasse. She deflected every blast from the heliball, confidently stepping backwards along the rope until she felt solid ground beneath her feet again. 

The heliball followed her, its blasts increasing in frequency. Still blindfolded, Rey ducked and dodged, whirling the lightsaber to block each blast. She was so focused, that at first she didn’t notice as the sounds of the forest began to dull. The calls of the birds grew muted; even the breeze seemed to stop blowing. 

She felt a presence behind her and registered what was happening all at once. _Oh no,_ she thought wildly. _Not now._ Spinning around, she lifted the blindfold to search the trees. 

Taking advantage of her distraction, the heliball zapped her upper arm. “Ow!” Rey cried out, turning back in the direction of the blast and brandishing her lightsaber fiercely. The heliball continued to fire alarmingly quickly; Rey blocked a few more shots before turning on her heel and running. She might not be able to escape her Force bond, but she could outrun this ball. 

She had only run a few yards when she heard the distinctive hum of another lightsaber igniting nearby and involuntarily looked toward the sound. As soon as she did, her foot caught on a tree root and she crashed to the forest floor. 

Her vision was suddenly filled with glowing red, the familiar saber sparking angrily, slashing through white walls over and over again until they were a charred ruin. An anguished, guttural scream increased in volume until she could hear nothing else. Rey clapped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, desperate to block out the sounds and images flooding her mind. 

_“Come home. Your mother misses you.”_

_Kylo stood facing Han on the bridge bathed in red light. A moment stretched on forever where it seemed like Kylo might truly abandon his mask and leave with Han. Then the saber between them ignited, taking both of them by surprise. Han reached out to gently touch his son’s face, and Kylo watched his father fall._

_“Ben, no!” Luke’s voice shouted. But it was too late. The temple was already on fire, and Ben could do nothing but look on in horror. He could no more quell the flames than he could quell the darkness rising within himself._

_The burning temple turned into the burning throne room. Kylo stood before her, glowing embers raining all around him, his hand outstretched, his expression more vulnerable than she had ever seen it before. “Join me,” he whispered. “Please…”_

_She turned away from Kylo and came face to face with herself, clothed in a black hood and wielding a double-sided red lightsaber. “Become what you were meant to be,” her reflection urged, echoing the advice Kylo had once given her._

“NO!”

Rey stood and threw her own blue lightsaber through the air, slicing the heliball in half and missing Finn’s face by inches. Finn stopped in his tracks, stunned. 

“Oh no, Finn! I’m so sorry!” Rey rushed to her friend’s side, catching the lightsaber as it looped back around and deactivating it immediately. 

“It’s okay,” Finn said in a slightly higher voice than usual. 

“No, no, it’s not.” Rey shook her head. “I’m sorry, I — I was distracted.” Han’s death, Kylo’s plea…it felt like she had lived through them both again. All of his worst memories and her own worst fears, intertwined.

Finn’s expression shifted from alarm to concern. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

Rey debated for a moment before deciding to tell the truth. At least part of it. “It’s B— it’s Kylo.” She kept her voice carefully flat. “He’s — he’s in terrible pain.” 

Finn raised an eyebrow, but did not question how she knew this. “I guess he knows about Leia.”

“I’m sure he felt it when it happened,” Rey said heavily. “He must have been suppressing it.” _Like me._ She shuddered.  


Of course, Finn noticed. “There’s more that you’re not telling me.”

Rey hooked her saber back onto her belt and bent to retrieve the broken pieces of the heliball, which looked beyond repair even for her. “It’s nothing,” she said, brushing past him. 

“Come on, Rey,” Finn insisted, but she cut him off.

“What were you even doing out here, anyway? Did you follow me?”

“What? No, absolutely not — okay, yes, I followed you.” His expression softened. “I’m just worried, okay?”

“You should worry about Poe,” Rey said shortly. “He was closer to Leia than anyone.”

“I can worry about both of you,” Finn replied stubbornly.  


With a sigh, Rey stopped and turned to face her friend. “I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine. Really.” She took Finn’s wrist in her hand. “Losing Leia…it’s hard,” she continued, swallowing past the sudden lump in her throat. “But I’m not going to fall apart. I know she wouldn’t want us to.”

Finn searched her face for a moment. It seemed like he wanted to say more, but then he just nodded. “You’re right.” 

They walked the rest of the way back to the Resistance base in silence, not quite strained, but not entirely comfortable either. Rey knew Finn must have guessed more about her connection with Kylo than he let on, but she still couldn’t bring herself to tell him everything. Finn had held her on a pedestal since the moment they met, and a small, selfish part of her did not want that to change. 

When she reached the solitude of her room, she went to the drawer where she stored the Jedi texts she had taken from Ahch-To. She kept something else in there alongside the worn, leather-bound books, something she had not told anyone about. 

Shifting the books to the side, she pulled out the second lightsaber she had made using the old Skywalker crystal that she and Kylo had split in two. As soon as the Resistance had set up camp, Rey had combed through the texts, determined to find a way to repair the saber. When she came across a section on Force healing, she instinctively knew that she had found the solution. 

She could have mended the two parts of the crystal back together to make one saber, but instead she healed each piece separately. If anyone had asked her why, she would have said that Anakin Skywalker had two children, so it was only right that his legacy lightsaber be reforged into two. But even then, though she would not have admitted it to herself or anyone else, she had known that she was making the second one for Ben.

Rey cradled the lightsaber in her hands, remembering his horrified expression as he watched the Jedi Temple burn. The desperate look in his eyes as he begged her to join him. His anguished cries, his terrible grief over Leia. 

After his attack on Crait, she had told herself over and over again that Ben Solo was well and truly dead. However, if he could still be so affected by the loss of his mother, perhaps all hope was not lost for him after all. 

*****

Kylo sat alone in his room, his gaze fixed on the floor, his breathing harsh and ragged. His throat constricted painfully and his eyes burned, but he would not let a single tear fall. He was the Supreme Leader; he could not cry over a woman he had not seen in years, like some pathetic child. 

He had felt Leia’s death a few days before. While walking down the corridor to his room, the floor had suddenly seemed to vanish beneath his feet. Staggering against the wall, he thought for a second that their ship must have been attacked. But then the awful realization struck him, and it had been all he could do to get back to his chambers without being seen.

He had not told anyone in the First Order what he had sensed, but of course they had discovered the truth anyway. Hux had returned that morning and immediately gathered the other generals and commanding officers to make the triumphant announcement, as if he had had anything to do with it. Kylo kept his face an impenetrable mask throughout the meeting, and then quietly retreated to his room to explode.

The violent wave of grief had ebbed as suddenly as it appeared, leaving him feeling utterly hollow. He wasn’t sure which was worse, the silence or the storm. 

His father was gone, his mother was gone. It was really better this way, he told himself. Simpler. He could put the past completely behind him now; there was nothing left to tie him to Ben Solo. 

Kylo looked up at the smoking wreckage that had once been a wall, and humiliation washed over him. He had not lost control like that in a long time. For a brief moment, while he was channeling his rage and despair into his lightsaber, he had thought he sensed Rey in the room with him. But by the time he collected himself enough to look around, her presence was gone. 

It was just as well. He didn’t want anyone to see him like this, least of all her. 

They had not had a real conversation since that day in the throne room over a year ago, when he had asked Rey to join him and she refused. He had been so sure after he killed Snoke that she would see him for who he really was and stand with him. Her rejection had hit him harder than any blow Snoke had ever dealt, leaving him enraged and irrational, an all too easy target for Luke’s deception.

In the first few weeks after the Battle of Crait, he had been too angry and ashamed to try to reach out. His crushing failure had left his hold on the First Order tenuous at best, so he threw himself into ruling, reminding everyone why he was the Supreme Leader. If his officers could not respect him, then they would fear him. 

As the months went by, his thoughts began to drift back to the scavenger increasingly often. He told himself that he needed to learn where she was in order to find the Resistance, but he knew that was largely an excuse. He wanted to find her because leading the First Order was a desperately lonely experience. Despite how things had turned out, she was the first person who had made him feel understood in a very long time. Maybe in all his life. 

Sometimes, if he focused his full concentration, he saw flashes — a forest, the Falcon — but it was nothing like what they had shared before. He wondered if she might be employing some defensive technique against him. Or maybe their connection had just been irreparably damaged. 

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. He crossed the room to his desk and switched on the intercom. “What?”

“Supreme Leader,” Hux’s sycophantic voice came through the speaker. “I need a word with you. We have intercepted a transmission—”

“From the Resistance?” Kylo interrupted before he could stop himself.

There was a brief silence from the other end of the speaker. “No,” Hux said in a clipped tone, “but I think you’ll still be interested in what it has to s—”

Kylo turned off the intercom. Whatever Hux needed to tell him, it could clearly wait until later.

Except the knocking resumed, more insistent than before. Kylo went directly to the door this time and punched the button to open it. “What?” he growled, looming over Hux.

To his credit, Hux did not shrink before him, but instead stood taller and looked him directly in the eye. “It’s Emperor Palpatine. He’s back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!!
> 
> I just wanted to add a few more notes regarding my thought process on some things:
> 
> 1) Part of my motivation in writing this is to see what I feel could have been changed to improve the movie, without completely overhauling the entire thing. As a result, I did not want to create any new scenes with Carrie Fisher that weren't in the actual film. I found her scenes very forced and awkward, so I decided to start this story with Leia having just passed away. While I hate to remove her completely, I also think starting with her death would have been a good catalyst to drive the characters and put them in a new state of mind at the start of this movie.
> 
> 2) While the "I'm the spy!" comedy beats with Hux definitely worked for me, I was sad that he didn't have a bigger role in the movie. It seemed more in character to me that he would seek out Palpatine to usurp Kylo Ren rather than turning to the Resistance. Likewise, it irked me that the existence of the "Final Order" essentially rendered the First Order pointless, so in this version Hux and Palpatine have a mutually beneficial relationship where Hux needs a powerful Force user to take down Kylo, and Palpatine needs the First Order to be his army.
> 
> 3) I absolutely hated that Rey felt she still needed to "earn" Luke's lightsaber in the movie, and that the powerful symbolic moment of the saber splitting between her and Kylo went completely unacknowledged. So I'm fixing that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Resistance intercepts a message from Palpatine, leading Rey and Kylo to reconnect.

“Finn! Rey!” Poe spotted his friends across the bustling yard of the Resistance camp and made his way toward them. As he got closer, he noticed that Rey was repairing some panels on the Falcon, with Finn standing nearby to hand her various tools. Poe felt slightly guilty — he had borrowed the ship a couple days earlier and maybe not flown as gently as he could have — but he quickly pushed it aside. They had far more serious problems at the moment. 

“What is it, Poe?” Finn asked, catching his tone immediately. Rey looked up as well, using the back of her hand to wipe sweat from her brow. 

“Our comms picked up a transmission. We think it was meant for the First Order.” He looked from Rey back to Finn. “You just — you need to hear it.” He knew what he had to say would sound crazy if they didn’t listen to the message for themselves first. 

Finn glanced at Rey, and she nodded. “Okay,” she said, getting to her feet. “I can finish patching this up later.” 

Poe led his friends back to the repurposed hangar that currently served as the headquarters for the Resistance. Although everyone was trying to keep busy, the atmosphere of the camp was still extremely subdued compared to its usual frenzied state. Their numbers had increased significantly in the last several months, but they had not yet fully recovered from their losses at the Battle of Crait. This thought brought Poe another pang of guilt that he ignored. 

Leia had told him many times not to blame himself for the decimation of their fleet. She herself had disobeyed orders on more than one occasion, and he had only been doing what he thought was best for everyone. Besides, if he hadn’t insisted on following through with his plan to destroy the Dreadnought, the Resistance would have been wiped out entirely as soon as the First Order tracked them through hyperspace. While Poe acknowledged that this was true, it did not bring him as much comfort as he would have hoped.

But there was no room to doubt himself now. Not with Leia gone. 

Rose sat manning comms station with BB-8 at her side. The droid alerted her to their arrival with a series of beeps, and she spun around in her chair. “You guys are not going to believe this,” she said without any preamble. “Play the message for them, BB-8.” 

Rolling closer to the circle of monitors, BB-8 opened a compartment on his side to reveal a tiny screw that he tightened into one of the audio ports. At once, a sinister voice began to emit from the speakers.

_“…will be the beginning of a new Empire. Join me and we will restore the galaxy to its natural order…”_

A look of horror dawned on Finn’s face, but Rey just stared at them blankly. “Who is that?” 

Of course Rey wouldn’t recognize the voice; she had grown up in the middle of nowhere, years after the Empire had been defeated. Well, there was no point in beating around the bush. “It’s Palpatine,” Poe said grimly. “The Emperor from the last war.” 

Rey gaped at him. “But…how? Are you sure?”

“I heard one of his speeches as a kid.” Poe closed his eyes, remembering. “Trust me, that’s not a voice you forget.” 

“Could this be an old recording?” Finn leaned over Rose’s shoulder to study the green text appearing on the monitors.

Rose started to shake her head before Finn even finished his question. “No. He—he mentions Luke…and Leia. Keep playing, BB-8.”

_“Now that the Skywalkers are dead, the Resistance has no one to rally them. The systems that have remained neutral will be swayed to our cause, and we will crush any who defy us. The Rebellion will die with the Skywalker name…”_

The message dissolved into static, and a shocked silence fell over the four of them. 

Finn broke it first. “If this message is real, then we need to try to find him. Find him and stop him.” He looked at Poe. “Right?”

Poe felt a surge of pride at how much Finn had grown. Apparently Rose felt the same way; she gave Finn a glowing look that Poe tried not to notice. “Right,” he replied with all the conviction he could muster. “Rose, can you trace the message?” 

“No,” she said, her disappointment obvious. “I’m trying, but the signal is scrambled. It sounded like he mentioned a place at one point in the recording though.” Rose leaned forward to scrutinize the monitors, her eyes leaping from one line to the next until she found the word she was looking for. “Exegol?” 

“Wait.” Rey held up a hand, her eyes going wide. Without another word, she ran down the hall that led to their living quarters. Poe threw Finn a questioning glance, but he just shrugged, as confused as the rest of them. 

A few moments later, she returned with a small, leather-bound book. “I’ve heard of Exegol before,” she said, flipping through the pages. “Luke was trying to find it!” 

Poe asked, “Did he?” at the same time Finn said, “No way!” They crowded around either side of Rey to try to look over her shoulders. 

“I don’t think he ever made it there.” She paused when she found the page she was looking for. “Here it is! Exegol is in the Unknown Regions — Luke was looking for its coordinates. The last notes he made about his search mention Pasaana and Mustafar.” 

“We don’t want to go to Mustafar if we can help it, that planet’s still crawling with Vader loyalists. The First Order will know what we’re up to before we even get started.” Poe looked around at his friends, giving any of them the chance to object, to tell him that they shouldn’t rush into anything, but they all stared back with the same determination that he felt.

“Looks like we’re going to Pasaana.” 

******

Rey rustled around in her drawers, pulling out clothes and books and throwing them into the open bag on her bed. She wasn’t sure what exactly she would need for this journey, or when she would return. It hardly seemed possible that a few hours ago her biggest concern was repairing the damage Poe had done to the Falcon, and now there was a chance Emperor Palpatine might be back from the dead.

She paused with her hand on the lightsaber stowed in her drawer, the words from Palpatine’s message ringing through her mind.

_Now that the Skywalkers are dead…the Rebellion will die with the Skywalker name…_

But there was still one left. He might not have the name, but he came from the Skywalker bloodline. If Palpatine knew that Luke and Leia were both gone, he surely must know about Kylo. However, since Kylo was the current leader of the First Order, Palpatine likely saw him not as a threat, but as an ally. 

As if her thoughts had summoned him, Rey felt their connection flickering to life for the second time in as many days. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as the sounds from the hallway began to dull. Rey straightened and grabbed her bag, preparing to flee.

“Going somewhere?”

Closing her eyes, Rey turned around slowly. When she opened them, Kylo stood before her, blocking the door, his eyes on the bag in her hand. 

Apart from her visions the day before, this was the first time she had really seen him in months. He looked exactly the same as he had that day in the throne room, down to the scar marring his face, the scar that she had given him. Her chest tightened painfully, but she refused to let him see how much the sight of him affected her. “I thought we were done with this,” she said coolly. 

“So did I.” He tilted his head slightly, lifting his gaze to meet hers. “You’ve been blocking me out. Haven’t you?”

There was no point in denying it. “I had nothing to say to you,” she hissed. 

“Ah.” He leaned forward a bit, narrowing his eyes. “Has that changed?”

Rey hesitated, realizing too late what her response had implied. She could have deflected, but she needed to confirm what she had sensed yesterday. “You know about Leia,” she said, the venom dissipating from her voice. “Don’t you?” 

For the briefest moment, his mask cracked, and she saw the lost boy underneath the guise of Kylo Ren. His eye twitched and his mouth trembled with the effort of controlling his emotions. But then his features froze back into place, and he nodded almost imperceptibly, his gaze flicking back to her bag. “And you know about Palpatine,” he said abruptly. “That’s where you’re going. You’re trying to find him.”

Rey was too caught off guard to offer any other excuse. She stared helplessly as Kylo took a step closer to her. 

“We want the same thing, Rey,” he said quietly, searching her face. “If we work together, I know we can find him. And then we can destroy him.” 

“So you and I can rule the galaxy?” she responded sarcastically. “I already refused this offer once, and nothing’s changed. I’ll never join you, Kylo.” 

His expression hardened. “Then I guess we’ll see who finds him first.” 

Rey felt the connection between them begin to break, sure that Kylo felt it too. He started to turn away from her but stopped at the last second, obviously wrestling with something. 

“Was she alone?” he finally asked, not quite meeting her eye.

Rey did not need to ask what he was referring to. He looked back up at her, and for just a second he looked so impossibly young. Against her will, she felt another rush of compassion for the broken man before her. She wanted to hate him; she knew that she should, but every time she got close, she caught another glimpse of the soul Kylo tried so hard to bury. 

Her resolve crumbled. “No,” Rey replied softly. “She wasn’t.”

Kylo nodded once, and then Rey was alone in her room again. Lost in thought, she stared at the place where he had been until a knock at the door broke her concentration. 

She found Finn on the other side. “Who were you talking to?” He looked around her to peer inside the room.

Rey shifted to block his view. “No one. Are you ready to go?”

Not one to be deterred, Finn crossed his arms, arching an eyebrow skeptically. “I thought I heard voices.”

Rey sighed. Her renewed Force conversations with Kylo were going to be a problem if Finn continued to be so attentive. “It was nothing,” she insisted. “I was just talking to myself. Going over what I needed to pack.” 

Finn did not seem to fully believe this explanation, but thankfully he dropped the argument. “Okay, whatever,” he said, shaking his head. “Yeah, we’re all set. Meet you on the Falcon?”

“I’ll be right there,” Rey assured him. As Finn walked away, she took one last look around her room to see if there was anything she might be forgetting. When she was confident that she had everything she needed, she turned off her light and started toward the door. 

On the threshold, she hesitated. She did not want to fool herself into thinking Kylo would change; she had already been down that road once before, and as Luke had warned her, it did not go the way she hoped. But on the other hand…it certainly couldn’t hurt to have a spare weapon. 

Before she could change her mind, Rey used the Force to summon the hidden lightsaber from her drawer, then hurried down the hallway after Finn. 

******

After hauling yet another bag of mechanical supplies onto the Falcon, Poe groaned and turned back to Rose. “Are we really going to need all this stuff?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I’ve never gone hunting for an evil undead Emperor before. I have no idea what we’re going to need.”

“Fair enough.” Poe noticed Lieutenant Connix a few feet away and jumped down from the Falcon’s ramp; he’d been waiting to catch her before they left. “Hey, Connix!” he yelled, jogging over to her.

“General,” she greeted as he approached. It was still jarring to hear people address him that way. Poe had to actively refrain from looking over his shoulder to check for Leia. 

“Listen,” he said, mentally shaking himself. “I’m going to be gone for a few days. Finn, Rose, Rey, and I have something that we need to do.”

Connix raised her eyebrows at him. “All four of you?”

“Yeah…,” Poe said, realizing just then that he should have come up with a good excuse for why four of the most important members of the Resistance would all need to be away from the base at the same time. This was why he wasn’t too sure about the whole General thing yet. “It’s um…uh…a recruitment mission,” he finished lamely.

“Right,” she replied after a moment. “Well…that’s good. We can never have too many new recruits.”

“Exactly,” Poe said, relieved she had accepted this explanation without further questions. “So I need you to run things for the next few days while I’m gone.”

Connix’s mouth dropped open. “Me? Are you sure?”

Poe clapped a hand on her shoulder. “Completely. There’s no one I would trust here more than you.” _For better or for worse,_ he thought, remembering how Connix had been one of the few people to have his back during the disastrous codebreaker plan. 

“Really?” she asked, still looking a bit stunned.

“Really. Just make sure communication lines are open, keep training the new guys, and try not to blow anything up.” Poe reconsidered the last part. “Unless the situation calls for you to blow something up,” he added. “You’ll be just fine!”

He clapped her on the shoulder again and left her standing speechless behind him. When he turned to face the Falcon, he found Rose staring at him with her arms crossed.

“What?” he said defensively, avoiding her judgmental gaze.

“You’re not going to tell her what we’re really doing?” Rose asked in a low voice. 

“Shh!” Poe glanced at Connix furtively, but she did not seem to have heard. All the same, he pulled Rose safely out of earshot. “If people find out about Palpatine, it’ll cause a panic,” he whispered. “Trust me, it’s better this way.”

Rose frowned, still looking at him intently. “That may be true,” she said carefully, “but it’s also the same type of thinking that got us into trouble last year. Just think how different things would have been if Holdo had trusted you with her plan.” 

Poe closed his eyes. He didn’t need to be reminded; he thought about that all the time. If only Holdo had told him about Crait, if only he hadn’t been such an arrogant asshole, if only…but he couldn’t change what had happened. He could only try to do a little better every day.

Including today, apparently. 

“You’re right.” He opened his eyes to find Rose smiling at him with relief. “Connix, wait!”

She looked back at him expectantly, still standing where he had left her. As he walked over, he dug in his pocket until he found the small drive containing a copy of Palpatine’s message. He pressed the drive into Connix’s palm when he reached her.

“This is a recording,” he said quietly, still gripping her hand, “of a message from Emperor Palpatine.”

“What?” Connix gasped, jerking away. “Is—is it old?”

Poe shook his head. “We don’t think so, but we won’t know for sure until we trace it.” He gave her a look of grim determination. “That’s where we’re really going. To see if this message is real.”

Connix stared back in horror. “What if it is?”

“If it is…” Poe hesitated, trying to think of what Leia would say if she were there. “Then we’ll find a way to stop him. Whatever it takes.” He sighed. “Listen, Connix —” 

“I won’t tell anyone unless I have to,” she interrupted. “I know people would just panic.”

Poe could have hugged her. “And that’s why I’m leaving you in charge!”

Connix laughed, then quickly sobered. “Good luck, General,” she said earnestly.

“Thanks.” He smiled at her. “You too.” 

By the time he got back to the ship, Finn and Rey had arrived, along with BB-8, R2D2, and C-3PO. “What’s with the droid brigade?” he asked, joining his friends.

“General Poe! Miss Rey has just told us that you are going on a secret mission.” C-3PO waved his arms in protest as Finn and Rey walked up the ramp to stow their bags. “I must say, you can count me out! I’ve had enough secret missions for a lifetime.” 

“Don’t worry, 3PO, no one’s asking you to join us.” Poe rolled his eyes, kneeling beside BB-8 to give his droid a pat. “You, on the other hand, are staying with me this time.” BB-8 beeped and spun around him happily. 

“Are we ready to go?” Rey called down from the door of the Falcon. 

“Yeah, be right up!” As BB-8 rolled up the ramp, Poe turned to C-3PO and R2D2. “Alright, you two. Take care of each other.”

“We always do!” C-3PO replied, placing a golden hand on top of R2, who whirred and bounced a little in response. “Would you like me to tell you the odds that this mission is going to succeed?”

“Not a chance!” Poe shouted, already heading up the ramp. He waved without looking back. 

On the Falcon, he passed Rose and BB-8 in the hallway as he made his way to the cockpit. Rey and Chewbacca sat in the two pilot positions, with Finn already strapped into the seat behind Chewie. As Poe strapped himself into the seat behind Rey, the Wookiee roared, probably to express his relief at having her back as co-pilot. “It is,” she agreed with a smile. 

Rey started the engine and gently lifted them into the air. Being a passenger always felt strange to Poe, but he had to hand it to Rey — she was a skilled pilot. 

Once they were through the planet’s atmosphere, Rey turned around to look at him and Finn. She opened her mouth to say something but then closed it again, gazing at the two of them fondly.

“What?” Poe asked, feeling faintly embarrassed.

“Nothing,” Rey replied, shaking her head. “It’s just — it’s nice to be doing this together.” 

Finn nodded fervently. “It is.”

Poe couldn’t help feeling a bit touched. If he had learned anything from Leia, it was how easy it was to feel alone in any kind of leadership role — and how much the people he surrounded himself with mattered. 

He cleared his throat. “We got this, you guys,” he said in a slightly rougher voice than usual. “Rey, do you have the coordinates for Pasaana?”

Chewbacca roared again. “Yes, Chewie put them in,” Rey translated. “Ready for the jump?”

Poe leaned forward. “Let’s do this.”

Rey turned back around, flipped a few switches, and adjusted several dials. She paused with her hand over a button larger than all the rest. “Hold on!” she called loudly enough for Rose and BB-8 to hear. Then she brought her hand down on the button, and with a flash of white light they burst into hyperspace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!!
> 
> Some notes:
> 
> 1) So this section ended up having much more Poe than I planned. The scenes of them discovering Palpatine's message and leaving for Pasaana just felt natural coming from his perspective. However, if you are not a huge fan of Poe, there probably will not be a ton of Poe POV going forward? I'm still working on this though, so I can't say for sure.
> 
> 2) I don't know if it is realistic given her rank in the Resistance, but I thought Poe leaving Connix in charge would have been a nice homage to Carrie, since Connix is played by her real life daughter. <3
> 
> 3) Yes, I'm taking Rose and leaving C-3PO behind! What was done to Rose in this movie was a disgrace. Like Hux, a lot of the comedy beats with C-3PO did work for me, but I feel like there were things sacrificed to make room for his whole arc that I wish we could have seen instead. It honestly didn't make a lot of sense that they took C-3PO to Pasaana - he's not very mobile, and no explanation for bringing him was ever given. I'm also getting rid of the dagger in this version, so there won't be any need for him to translate.


End file.
